


maybe in another lifetime, this could have been our story

by Tatsumaki_sama



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse), Resident Evil - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Eventual Romance, F/M, Falling In Love, Families of Choice, First Crush, Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury, Mutual Pining, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protectiveness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-16 04:39:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18087614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tatsumaki_sama/pseuds/Tatsumaki_sama
Summary: Leon and Claire managed to stay together during Raccoon City.





	maybe in another lifetime, this could have been our story

**Author's Note:**

> I never thought I would get into Resident Evil (me being not a fan of the horror genre in general) but I saw some cutscenes and watched a playthrough of the remake and the story and characters were very fascinating. I decided to focus more on the Claire A scenario where I won't be including Ada and other things. This was also an excuse to write more interaction with Leon and Sherry. The part with Chief Irons ended up being longer than I thought. Please excuse any mistakes or if certain characterizations don't align with canon material.

“ Save yourselves. Get out of the city. We all know how this is going to end for me.”

 

The finality of Marvin's words, almost pleading with them to leave him behind, was like a dash of cold water. Claire was looking helplessly at Leon, wordlessly asking for any other option. She had an expression of resignation and they both knew there was nothing they could say or do to convince Marvin otherwise.

 

“ Okay,” he finally said, standing up. “ Come on, Claire.” He hated how defeated he sounded, how useless he felt.

 

Claire quietly nodded, as if to reassure him that she agreed with him, that she knew it had to be done, that it was the right thing to do. It wasn't – _none_ of this was right – but there was no other choice.

 

“ Marvin.” He looked up. “ Thank you,” Claire softly said.

 

He silently nodded and Claire marched towards the tunnel entrance. If her eyes appeared a little misty, Leon did not comment on it.

 

Marvin's bloody hand suddenly gripped Leon's wrist, pulling him behind. “ Claire's got a good head on her shoulders,” Marvin started gravely, his voice low. “ But you gotta watch her back. You make sure that she – and any other survivors you find – make it out of the city alive. You protect her with your _life_. Do you understand?”

 

Leon's fingers tightened back as if it would be enough to convey his sincerity. It was unnecessary for Marvin to say it. Despite knowing Claire for such a short time, there was an explicit fondness for her. He wouldn't let anything hurt Claire. “ Yes, sir,” he said.

 

Marvin staggered back, his shoulders slumping like a burden was released from him. “ Go,” he said heavily.

 

Without another word, Leon walked forward to join Claire, refusing to look behind him.

 

~.~.~

 

Chris once said that you truly get to know someone when you see how they react in a high intense, stressful situation.

 

And it did not get anymore intense and stressful than dealing with zombies and whatever abomination that was coming after the little girl and now turned its attention towards her and Leon.

 

After the initial shock of seeing that monstrosity and falling down with it, Leon took point, firing bullet after bullet to draw its attention away from her. “ Move!” he yelled.

 

She scrambled up to her feet, gun already out.

 

They worked surprisingly good together, like a well-oiled team. No words were needed, no signal or gesture required for them to communicate. When Claire had to reload, Leon covered for her. When Leon had to reposition for a better shot, Claire watched his blind side. And then, they would shift and change and their roles adjusted.

 

It was strange and oddly exhilarating to allow themselves to put their trust and faith on someone they had known less than a few hours.

 

But they just knew.

 

Once the monster finally staggered and plummeted over the edge, they were able to breath again.

 

“ Claire! You okay?” Leon came up beside her, looking as beaten up as she felt.

 

“ Yeah.” She steadied herself, easing the cut of each breath against her chest. Her hand trembled against the railing, as if anticipating the creature would crawl back up. “ Yeah, I'm fine. You?”

 

“ I'm okay.” Leon smiled at her. “ You did great.”

 

His words washed over Claire and despite still recovering from the shock and the horror of seeing and fighting what they just encountered, she couldn't help but smile back.

 

In spite of the gore that covered him and being littered with bruises, it was hard to deny that Leon had a great smile, the kind with soft edges and a warmth that settled comfortably under the skin.

 

(it was impossible for a guy like that to look that good; surely she must have seen better looking guys than Leon S. Kennedy in her lifetime)

 

(she didn't)

 

She tried to tell herself that she was simply getting overly attached to a stranger, it was the traumatic experience that made her latch onto someone she barely knew, someone who was still alive and going through the same thing she was, for the sake of her sanity in this nightmarish world they were thrown into.

 

But then Leon's hand brushed across her shoulder, sending a jolt of electricity across her entire body and just like that, her knees felt a little wobbly and Claire wasn't too sure anymore if it only had to with exhaustion or the waning adrenaline.

 

~.~.~

 

There was an itch at the back of Leon's neck, a sense that they were being watched as the three of them tried to lift up the parking gate. Leon's instincts had yet to prove him wrong and it had saved his and Claire's lives several times while in the city.

 

He turned his head just enough to catch a glimpse of a silver gun aiming at them from the darkness.

 

“ Get down!” he yelled, jumping in front of Claire and Sherry, just as the sound of a harsh gunshot rang out.

 

There was grim satisfaction as well as relief as Leon felt an explosion of pain at his shoulder, that at the very least, the bullet did not hit either one of them. They were unharmed.

 

Two voices shouted his name. Hands, flying and terrified, rolled him over and he forced himself not to cry out as the motion made waves of fire spread from his shoulder down his arm, numbing and burning him at the same time.

 

Claire's worried face swam and tilted somewhere above him. Leon dimly thought that with the glare of the abandoned car's headlights, he could see a dapple of freckles across Claire's nose.

 

He also vaguely realized just how blue her eyes were.

 

“ Back away, nice and easy. And hands behind your head.”

 

An unfamiliar male voice spoke in the distance, his footsteps heavy enough for Leon to feel them trembling and vibrating across the cement ground. Leon couldn't see who it was.

 

“ Are you kidding me?” Claire snapped, refusing to move from her position beside Leon. It was almost strange to hear her so angry. So protective.

 

Another gunshot.

 

Leon's heart lurched, cursing how sluggish his body became as he desperately tried to sit up, praying that the man had not hurt Claire or Sherry.

 

To his relief, the man had only shot at a car as a warning as Claire slowly backed up against the gates, pushing Sherry behind her. On the other hand, he recognized who the man was.

 

“ Chief Irons?” he said in disbelief.

 

Leon had caught glimpses of the man who would be his chief during his brief visit at the precinct, who had walked past Leon's offered hand with barely any acknowledgement, muttering something under his breath, looking distracted and stressed. The other officers had shook their heads and patted his shoulder sympathetically, telling him that the Chief had been like that lately.

 

There was a strange contrast seeing Irons in his clean crisp police uniform after seeing Marvin covered in grime, blood and dirt. Irons spared him a bored glance. “ Well now, what do you know? Thought you look familiar. You're that rookie cop. Heh, you really are a pretty boy, even after wading through this place, aren't you?”

 

The way he spoke, so calmly and cordially without ever moving his gun from pointing at Claire, set Leon's teeth on edge.

 

“ What's going on?” Leon demanded. “ You're supposed to be defending this city, not – ”

 

Only to receive a kick to the chest.

 

“ Don't tell me how to do my job,” Irons hissed, his sickly pleasant mask cracking and slipping off.

 

“ Leon!”

 

Claire rushed forward as if it would be enough to protect him.

 

“ What did I tell you, girl? Back off.”

 

Hunched over from wheezing, Leon could only glare at Irons whose attention now fixated on Claire and Sherry. “ You, on the ground now. Sherry, tie her hands.”

 

When Sherry continued to cling to Claire's arm and Claire refused to budge, Irons tutted like an impatient parent. “ Okay then.”

 

He slammed his foot into Leon's injured shoulder.

 

Leon couldn't stop the scream from clawing out of his throat as Irons' shoe painfully and slowly twisted deep into his wound.

 

“ You son of a – !”

 

Claire's furious words halted as Irons turned the gun on Leon now. “ Do as you are told or he dies.”

 

With a cold look that could kill, Claire obeyed his instructions as Sherry reluctantly tied her up.

 

“ That wasn't so hard, was it?” Irons pleasantly said as if he was discussing the weather. “ Sherry, get over here.”

 

Terrified, Sherry didn't move.

 

Irons' foot came down hard once more. The pain at his shoulder exploded again and Leon cried out.

 

“ Okay! Okay! I'll go! Just don't hurt him anymore!” Sherry fearfully shuffled over towards Irons.

 

With an amicable smile that did not match the uglier side lurking underneath, Irons finally removed his foot from Leon's shoulder who could finally properly breathe again. “ Of course, you have my word.”

 

“ Don't listen to him,” Claire snarled. “ Sherry, run – ”

 

Irons backhanded Claire across the mouth with his gun. “ Don't you ever shut up?” he growled.

 

“ Stop it! You're hurting her!” Sherry cried. “ You promised!”

 

Her protests were casually dismissed as Irons began dragging Sherry through the gate.

 

Gritting his teeth, Leon tried to drag himself off the ground to chase after them. His shoulder throbbed with every motion and blood trickled down his back. His body refused to obey any command, moving far too slow.

 

Both he and Claire, managing to cut free from her bonds, slammed against the now closed gates, only able to helplessly watch as Sherry and Irons disappeared into the dark gloom.

 

“ Damn it!” Claire swore, kicking the gate in frustration.

 

Leon collapsed back down, clutching at his shoulder. He failed. He couldn't protect either of them.

 

Claire hurried to his side. Her enraged expression now melted into concern and uneasiness. “ Forget about me,” Leon managed to gasp out. “ Go after Sherry. You need to stop him.”

 

“ Don't be ridiculous,” Claire vehemently shook her head.

 

“ I'm only going to slow you down,” Leon bit back a groan as she ignored his statements and began checking his shoulder. The cool gentle touch of her fingers contrasted the heat that burned under his skin. “ Sherry needs you more. Just leave me.”

 

“ No!”

 

Claire's outburst surprised him. It seemed to surprise Claire too. She took a deep breath. “ I'm not leaving you. Not like this.”

 

The memory of leaving Marvin behind was still fresh and raw. Neither of them were able to help him. But it seemed Claire was determined not to let something like that happen again, to feel that kind of powerlessness again.

 

“ I don't like leaving Sherry a minute longer with that creep but we aren't trading lives,” Claire said with fierce resolve and no room for objection. “ We are going to get through this. Together.”

 

Together.

 

That single word brought a flutter of warmth in Leon's stomach.

 

~.~.~

 

With Sherry now infected and Leon's condition slowly worsening, Claire had to bite down on the despair that threatened to overwhelm her.

 

She held Sherry a little closer to her chest as their little group hurried down the empty hallways. Leon was a few steps behind, whether to act as the rearguard or because he simply could not keep up with Claire's pace.

 

The dim lighting made his cheeks appear even paler and the darkened stain at his shoulder appeared to mock Claire by looking more pronounced and uglier. The fall from the elevator did not help and perhaps only furthered in worsening his injury.

 

But Leon did not let it affect him. His eyes remained alert and vigilant, gun held steady as he constantly scanned their surroundings, keeping watch as Claire started up the cable car. Even when he wasn't at his best, he made sure that nothing would come between him and Claire and Sherry.

 

Even now, he sat next to Sherry, letting her use his lap as a pillow, telling her stories to keep her distracted, even though he was surely almost in just as much pain and discomfort as Sherry. Occasionally he would glance encouragingly at Claire and smile at her, his reassurances to Sherry just as much for Claire as well.

 

A man like that was hard to come by.

 

“ – and the milkshakes were so thick that it took six people to finish it,” Leon was saying and Sherry managed to smile and wasn't that the sweetest thing? “ Once we get out of the city, I'll take us there.”

 

“ Where will we find more people to help us eat it?”

 

“ We'll find Claire's brother.” Leon nodded emphatically. Claire's heart skipped a beat at what Leon was truly saying. Sherry might not have caught on but Claire did.

 

That even after this was all over, Leon would resolve to stay with them.

 

With her.

 

“ But he's just one person,” Sherry reasonably pointed out.

 

“ I bet he has big muscles.” Leon shot Claire a mischievous look and suddenly he looked a lot younger. It was hard to believe he wasn't much older than her, just a little younger than Chris.

 

“ He does,” Claire chimed in. She sat down on Sherry's other side. “ Chris is pretty strong. We'll convince him to help us.”

 

After they find him, wherever he was in Europe.

 

Sherry shifted, pressing her cheek against Leon's lap, holding back a wince at the sudden movement. “ Then we can eat all the milkshakes we want,” she murmured.

 

Claire brushed the sweat-soaked hair from Sherry's forehead while Leon tugged Claire's jacket around Sherry tighter to keep her warm. “ Of course,” she gently said.

 

What a strange little group they had become.

 

~.~.~

 

“ Now what?” Claire asked in a hushed voice as they settled into the dusty motel room. The clerk thankfully did not ask any questions and in a polite tone, reminded the three of them that the showers in the rooms were fully operational.

 

Leon didn't answer right away. His mind had been so focused on surviving, protecting Claire and Sherry and getting the hell out of the city alive that he had not really thought about what he would do afterwards.

 

Sherry barely finished the cereal bars that Leon managed to scrounge up from the vending machines before falling asleep in one of the beds.

 

Sleep did not come easy for Leon or Claire as they alternated with using the showers, making quiet small talk and checking and rechecking the remaining bullets left in their guns. Leon's shoulder still ached and bled but at least Claire was able to bandage it up properly. Claire nursed several bruises and she sighed with relief as Leon handed her a bag of ice.

 

They had heard the news from the motel's radio, that Raccoon City was gone, destroyed and reduced to ash by a missile sent by the US government. From where the train brought them to, most likely somewhere on the other side of Arklay Mountains, they could not see the city's skyline burning up.

 

In the way, they were happy that they couldn't.

 

(they could have still been there; it could have been them burning and choking and dying; a few hours too late and they would have shared the same fate as the rest of the city)

 

“ I don't know,” he finally said, as honest as he could. “ Sometimes I still can't believe what happened.”

 

“ Me too,” Claire quietly said. He noticed that she kept her knife still strapped to her belt after all this time. He understood that dread and fear that gnawed at the bones as they constantly looked out for any monster that came for them. He too still had his gun at his hip.

 

He felt a little embarrassed to think it was nice to have someone who knew what he went through. And he was glad it was with Claire.

 

“ We'll figure things out,” Leon said. “ We'll be okay.”

 

Suddenly emboldened, he reached out and grabbed Claire's hand. “ We'll be okay,” he repeated, a little more softly.

 

Claire appeared taken back and very quickly, he let go, afraid he had crossed an unwanted boundary. “ Sorry! I didn't mean – ” Leon flushed.

 

To his surprise, Claire shifted a little closer towards him. “ I don't mind,” she said, a little shyly.

 

A part of him snidely reminded him that they were only behaving this way towards one another because of post traumatic stress, that he was only harboring feelings for her right now because Claire was so easy to fall for and it had been his duty to protect her, that once the moment was over, it wouldn't be the same.

 

Leon wasn't able to make up his mind by the time Claire took his hand in hers.

 

Their fingers remained intertwined as the evening fell and they braved the rest of the night together.

 

 


End file.
